Romeo Mechanical Design Class Designs New Hood for Nissan

Giovanna Ruffino ‘19: Kenneth Bowers, a design engineer at Nissan and on the advisory committee, requested the Mechanical Design class at the RETC to come up with a proposal to stiffen the cantilever hood seal surface for a new car. The Mechanical Design students and teacher, Mrs. Eva Dossin, each bring new knowledge to the classroom every day to help Nissan redesign the cowl cover.

The students first needed to familiarize themselves with the cowl cover of a car. They began the project by skyping Bowers to go over the design problem for the Nissan Frontier.

“We got to see his screen and CAD designs, he explained everything to us which made much more sense, we then went out to my car to look at the cowl cover to see it in person, “ Dossin said.

Using the knowledge they received from their Skype video, CAD designs, and existing cowl covers, the students all worked together to brainstorm many different ideas to improve the cowl of the new Nissan car.

“We were first given the CAD drawings, which are 3D models of the part they are looking to redesign, and the students worked in a big group to brainstorm different ideas to solve this problem,” Dossin said.

Being a brand new project, lesson plans change daily based on the progress of the students work, opposed to a day-by-day planned project.

This project involves real life situations which may contribute to a new Nissan car. Thinking and researching inside and outside of the classroom to bring ideas to the table, the students work their hardest to come up with new design ideas for the cowl cover by the January 8th deadline.